Contemplative Food Gardening:

“FEED Your head”

(Edible Landscaping &

Design)

Robert Kluson

Ag/NR Extension Agent III

UF/IFAS Sarasota County Extension

OUTLINE

Overview & Goals of Contemplative

Food Gardening Presentation Series

Short Review of Contemplative &

Organic Food Gardens

Edible Landscaping

Contemplative Food Gardening

Series Titles

• Introduction

• Feed Your Head (Edible Landscaping & Design)

• Growing Food When People & Place Matter

(FL Climate, Crops and Soils)

• Ancient Traditions (Companion Planting and

Biodynamic Agriculture)

• Sacred Community (Attracting Beneficials)

• Soil Food (Compost & Earthworms)

• Back to the Future (Contemplative Design &

Container Gardening)

Introduction

– Food for your freshest nutrition

– Food for thought

– Food for community benefits

– Food for your soul

Goals for Talks on

Contemplative Food Gardening

Approach of Talks on

Contemplative Food Gardening

• Integrate the concepts of contemplative gardens to edible landscaping, using organic food gardening practices

• Provide background information on the science and principles from agroecology for successful organic food gardening

•

• Offer an opportunity to participate in the setup of a contemplative food garden

• Provide additional educational resources

• A contemplative garden provides an

ambience conducive to examining

issues beyond and/or larger than

oneself in a thoughtful, deliberate,

perhaps religious or mystical way.

Review:

What is Contemplative Gardening?

Gerlach-Spriggs & Healy. The Therapeutic Garden: A Definition.

http://www.asla.org/ppn/Article.aspx?id=25294

• Relief from stress of modern life

• Promoting inner growth and wisdom

• Reflection and synthesis of

knowledge

• Exploration and mindfulness

• Source of inspiration

Why Do Contemplative Gardening?

Images of Contemplative Gardens

Cultivating a wide diversity of edibles including

vegetables, fruits, herbs flowers, etc.

Review:

What is Food Gardening?

Review:

What Is Organic Food Gardening?

Organic Food Gardening

• It’s a science and art

• Incorporates the entire landscape design

and environment, e.g., to improve and

maximize the garden soil's health,

structure, & texture

• Maximizes the production and health of

developing plants without using synthetic

commercial fertilizers, pesticides, or

fungicides David Knauft, Horticulture Department, Univ. of GA

www.caes.uga.edu/extension/clarke/anr/documents/Organicgardening.pdf

What is Different About

Organic Food Gardening?

– Message in the value of

biodiversity for the function of

the ecosystem

– These teachings served as

foundation in land ethics for

many applications

• Incorporates a Systems Level Approach to

Management and Design of the Agroecosystem

• Consider a message from excerpt from Sand

County Almanac by Aldo Leopold (1949)

Aldo Leopold

“Thinking Like A Mountain”

“A deep chesty bawl echoes

from rimrock to rimrock, rolls

down the mountain, and fades

into the far blackness of the

night.

It is an outburst of wild defiant

sorrow, and of contempt for all

the adversities of the world.

Every living thing (and perhaps

many a dead one as well) pays

heed to that call.”

“Thinking Like A Mountain”

“To the deer it is a reminder of the way of all

flesh, to the pine a forecast of midnight

scuffles and of blood upon the snow, to the

coyote a promise of gleanings to come, to

the cowman a threat of red ink at the bank, to

the hunter a challenge of fang against bullet.

Yet behind these obvious and immediate

hopes and fears there lies a deeper

meaning, known only to the mountain itself.

Only the mountain has lived long enough to

listen objectively to the howl of a wolf.” http://www.eco-action.org/dt/thinking.html

“Thinking Like A

Mountain” - Aldo Leopold

• Message = Wolf – Deer – Forest dynamics &

inter-relationships are critical for ecosystem

function !

• Similar message in the value of biodiversity

applies to organic food gardening too !

The thoughtful arrangement of edible plants in the landscape

into a unified, functional biological whole to maximize their

aesthetic appeal and food production.

Treating Edibles as Ornamentals

What is Edible Landscaping?

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Best of both worlds – edible &

ornamental

Inter-planting reduces pests

New textures, forms, colors

Grow what you like best

Fun for kids

Responsible water use

Great conversation piece

Why Do Edible Landscaping?

Any Landscape Can Become

an Edible Landscape

• Choose for appropriate size

• Plant what you like to eat

• Choose for desired maintenance level

• Select appropriate varieties of edibles

Edible Landscape

Homestead Level Example

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Edible Landscape Design Approach

Edible Landscape

Plant Growth Requirements

• Light

• Support

• Nutrients

• Temperature

• Water

• Seasonality

Kale

Leaf

lettuces

Chard

Design Element: Color

Beans &

peas on

trellis for

height

Strawberry

for

groundcover

Design Element Examples

Squash

for size and

form

Basil

colors &

flavors

Sage

texture &

colors

Thyme aromas &

flavors

Design Elements with Herbs

Design Element: Edible Flowers

Edible Landscape Design Example

http://www.slideshare.net/UMNfruit/edible-landscaping

Edible Landscape Design Examples

Edible Landscape Installation Example

Food For Beauty And Nourishment

Contemplative Garden

Design Elements

• Clarity

• Complexity

• Mystery

• Refuge

http://www.gardenguides.com/663-contemplation-gardens.html

Properties for the “rooms” in your garden:

Contemplative Garden

Design Elements: Clarity

The area is not confusing to those looking at it. It

has, first of all, clarity of purpose

Threshold – a clear entry Border and pathway

Contemplative Garden

Design Elements: Complexity

There is enough of interest going on within a

given space that there is a reason to enter it and

dwell there for a while, e.g., with a mix of textures,

colors, smells, shapes, sizes and spaces

Contemplative Garden

Design Elements: Mystery

The surprises and hidden

features that may be

hinted at but not revealed

unless the visitor actively

seeks them out.

Contemplative Garden

Design Elements: Refuge

The "garden spots" both public and private should

give off a feeling of retreat from the cares of the

world.

Contemplative Food Gardening with

Edible Landscaping

Gardening outside the rows…creatively

for personal inspiration and growth, as

well as physical nourishment and growth

A few tips: • Remember timing, habit, requirements

• Start planning early

• Be creative…think outside the rows!

• Think about combinations

• Don’t be afraid to try something new.

Contemplative Food Gardening Art

http://www.powershow.com/view/ae6a6-YWEyZ/Edible_Landscapes_Gardening_Around_the_House_flash_ppt_presentation

Resouces

• Creasy, R. 2010. Complete Book of Edible

Landscaping. Sierra Club Press.

• Kourik, R. 1986. Designing and Maintaining Your

Edible Landscape Naturally. Metamorphic Press,

Santa Monica, CA.

• Langenheim, J.H. and K.V. Thimann. 1982.

Botany: Plant Biology and Its Relation to Human

Affairs. J.Wiley & Sons, N.Y.

• Messervy, J.M. 1990. Contemplative Gardens.

Howell Press.

• MacCubbin. T. 2000. The Edible Landscape.

Charles B. McFadden Inc

Resources

• Nardozzi, C. Edible Landscaping Primer. National

Gardening Association – see

http://www.garden.org/ediblelandscaping/?page=edib

leprimer

• Stevens, J.M. 2009. Organic Vegetable

Gardening. UF/IFAS EDIS Publication #CIR375

– see http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vh019

• Stevens, J.M. et.al. 2010. Florida Vegetable

Gardening Guide. UF/IFAS EDIS Publication

#SP103 - see http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vh021

• Worden, E. and S.P.Brown. Edible Landscaping.

UF/IFAS EDIS Publication #ENH971 - see

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ep146